Interested in the future of mobile learning and the technology that drives it?
I am geoff stead. This is a vintage blog of mine I'm reviving for m-learning thoughts that stray beyond the day job. You can find my work with enterprise mobile learning at WorkLearnMobile.org, and in english language learning over at beta.cambridgeenglish.org
Hot off the press, we are pleased to present the Mobile Learning infoKit. Launched at ALT-C 2011
The infoKit offers valuable advice for any organisation starting out in m-learning, as was compiled with interviews and contributions from all the main thinkers, creators and educators in this space
See the overview presentation (below) for a great introduction to m-learning, and if you want more you can download the entire infoKit at http://bit.ly/mobilelearninginfokit
Many months in development, this infokit was put together by Doug and those nice people at Jisc infoNet as a service to the education community. Thanks all!
I have just finished a very enjoyable discussion-filled presentation at mLearnCon – a mobile learning conference in Silicon Valley arranged by the eLearningGuild.
My session was all about helping the mostly US audience look a little wider at international m-learning projects, to see what lessons could be learned for the many current m-learning projects that are starting up right now
See below for the presentation we gave – comments (as always) welcomed
Our m-Ubuntu project in South Africa hits the news in USA!
I have blogged about m-uBuntu before – a growing family of schools in South Africa who are using “cell phones” to transform how they teach.
We have been out there a few times, and were very excited to hear it being reported on by “The Word”, a US radio channel who spent a while in Cape Town visiting two great mobile literacy projects there:
M4Lit – Mobile Phones for Literacy. Young people writing mobile stories. Championed by the excellent Steve, Ana & Marion at the University of Cape Town
m-Ubuntu – Helping transform teaching in impoverished classrooms, and empower resource-poor teachers.
You can here the recording here:
Well done the the m-uBuntu team! It is the perfect example of collaboration, empowerment, and shared learning.
- based in South Africa - dreamt up and managed from Washington - funding from Sweden, UK, USA - feet firmly planted on South African soil - championed by Learning Worldwide (Theo), Duke University (Lucy), Tribal (Geoff & Jess), diGameworks (Jeff) and many other friends
Even the learning itself follows the principle of “u-Buntu”, helping one another to help ourselves. This is not an initiative trying to push unwelcome solutions – rather they are helping the South African Education system rise to the challenge of supporting more students with less money.
It might work for you because you can learn where you want.
It might work for me because my phone is the only connection I have to the internet, and my classmates.
It works for some of our excluded learners because it reaches them, and (if we are lucky), is part of their "ah-ha!" moment.
I love stories of those "ah-ha!" moments. The sudden thing that turned on a light for a learner who had stopped engaging in their learning. Several years ago we made an adult numeracy product (the numbers disc) that had an entire section dedicated to learner stories. Collecting them was a real inspiration.
Today I found a great one. It was nothing to do with "mobile", but all to do with "learning". I stumbled on it on one of the OU discussion forums asking which book changed your life.
'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' by Gibbon. I was 21, on state benefits, with a baby and a toddler. I kept renewing the library book in the hope that one day I might finish it.
On about the 8th renewal the librarian asked me if I had ever considered studying with the Open University. He gave me a leaflet with the contact details.
I graduated BSc Hons 2.1 nine years later.
I will always be grateful to that kind librarian. 'Decline and Fall' changed my life.
